484 REVIEWS. 



or pages of clironological annals and official correspondence, repel some 

 of the ordinary class of readers, they will tempt others to study his 

 volume long after works of more immediate popularity have been for- 

 gotten. It embodies the fruits of labour and research, the amount 

 of which can only be fully appreciated by those who have themselves 

 undertaken to gather, classify, and present in an accessible shape, like 

 comprehensive data about a region hitherto visited chiefly by the rude 

 trapper or seal-hunter. 



The account of the Eskimo and Indian tribes of Alaska supplies 

 many curious details ; and this, as well as other departments, is illus- 

 trated by careful drawings. Here, for example, we have the subter- 

 ranean dwelling, or topek, of the Unaleets, a tribe of the great Innuit 

 family inhabiting the coasts. These topeks are built almost entirely 

 underground, " with the entrance more or less so, and the roof 

 furnished with a square opening in the centre for the escape of smoke 

 and admission of light. They are built of spruce logs, without nails or 

 pins, and are usually about twelve or fifteen feet square. The entrance 

 is a small hole, through which one must enter on hands and knees, and 

 is usually furnished with a bear or deer skin, or a piece of matting to 

 exclude the air. Outside of this entrance is a passage-way, hardly 

 larger, which opens under a small shed at the surface of the ground? 

 to protect it from the weather." This timber underground dwelling 

 of the Unaleets presents a striking analogy to the more durable Weem 

 of the prehistoric savage of North Britain. They belong to a people 

 in the very same primitive stage ; for the accumulated midden heaps 

 of the latter disclose the bones of the whale, along with the 9dible 

 molusks of the neighbouring coast, and implements of tlint and bone 

 not less rude than any which Mr. Dall depicts in illustration of the 

 infantile native arts of Alaska. 



Mr. Dall draws attention to other interesting illustrations of the close 

 analogies between primitive and modern savage arts. He remarks, for 

 example, on page 237, " The Innuit have a custom of making, on flat 

 pieces ot bone, rude drawings of animals, hunting parties, and similar 

 things. These drawings are analogous to those discovered in France 

 in the caves of Dordogne, and the preceding sketch of the drawings on 

 either side of two bone knives, illustrates their general character." 

 The illustrations referred to exhibit a native in his kyak spearing a 

 goose; a deer hunt; wolves in pursuit of deer; and apparently a native 

 dance. But while these examples are highly curious as illustrations of 



